Toronto-listed Novo Resources Corporation has received some stunning high grade assay results back from its recently completed 15,000 metre reverse circulation drill program at its Parnell-Vulture prospect in WA. In total, 83 holes were drilled for a total of 5,200m at the project area, handily located only 45 kilometres from the company’s Golden Eagle processing facility. Results include 4m at a seriously good 10.19 g/t gold from 31m.
The Parnell-Vulture area covers a strike length of approximately 2 kilometres and contains a series of vein-hosted targets with historical drill intercepts including 9m at 8.4 grams per ton gold from 7m, 12m at 14.6 g/t gold from 40m and 7m at 6.1 g/t gold from 40m.
The latest photon assay gold results for Parnell-Vulture received from the specialist Intertek lab in Perth, show similar width and grade tenor as the historical drilling intersections, improving confidence in historical data and potential strike extent.
Other significant results are located around the historic workings at Parnell and include 7m at a stellar 7.75 g/t gold and a solid 13m at 2.51 g/t gold from 21m. Initial results received from Vulture include 8m at an impressive 10.02 g/t gold from 11m.
Novo says results from holes drilled prior to the holiday period will be released in coming weeks, with drilling on the Parnell-Vulture trend scheduled to recommence this week.
The main gold target is an approximately 10m wide east-west to west-north-west trending shear zone variably intruded by a porphyry dyke with an associated series of vein-hosted gold targets. Mineralisation dips moderately to steeply to the south with extremely bleached sedimentary sequences adjacent to the main shear indicating likely sericite alteration of the original rock. This alteration halo is up to 50m wide whilst several other dykes are present in the area pointing to the potential of more mineralisation.
The assay results also show good continuity along strike with numerous small but frequent high-grade shoot-like components. Novo has plans for further infill and extensional drilling to test this area.
Drilling at the high-priority Parnell-Vulture prospect is primarily targeting the oxide potential, however testing of the fresh rock mineralisation is also on the cards. Oxide feed can often be put through a gold mill more easily and faster than bedrock ore sources meaning supplementary oxide ore sources always make a quick snack for a hungry mill.
The main mineralised trend at Parnell-Vulture sits on the eastern flank of Novo’s contiguous Pilbara landholding and is mostly untested with modern drilling. Only a few sporadic lines of shallow drilling were completed in the 1980’s and 1990’s however they were never run to ground due to unfavourable gold price conditions at the time.
A detailed soil sampling and mapping campaign was undertaken by Novo along the Parnell-Vulture trend with a series of robust and coherent gold anomalies identified across its tenure. Rock chip sampling was also undertaken across the Parnell-Vulture prospects with several significant samples returned including one rock chip coming in at 14.6g/t gold.
Drill efforts at the Parnell-Vulture prospect are part of Novo’s greater Nullagine gold project ramp-up, with several high-priority targets in the company’s portfolio about to come into play. The company’s flagship Beaton’s Creek paleo-placer gold project, based near the town of Nullagine, is extracting gold from sedimentary conglomerates within the Hardey Sandstone Formation - a thick sequence of ancient sedimentary and volcanic rocks. Historic mines near the town of Nullagine exploited pyritic gold-bearing reefs as early as the late 1800's. Since then, the area has seen only limited modern exploration. This style of mineralisation is similar to the famed Witwatersrand gold that sparked the 1886 gold rush in South Africa.
With impressive historical near-surface drill results complimented by state-of-the-art photon assay results, the Parnell-Vulture trend is shaping up well for Novo and 2022 is shaping up as a promising year in Australia for the Canadian gold miner.
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By Matt Birney
